our gadgets
BLA CKBERRY IN ‘PROPER SMARTPHONE’ SHOCKER. BUT WILL THE PRIV BEAR FRUIT? PAUL DIMERY FINDS OUT…
It’s a juicy month for tech, with members of the T3 team getting up close and personal with a BlackBerry Priv and the JR Ultra 8000 S Whole Slow Juicer.
Plus, are the Recon Jet glasses any good? And can the Optishot
2 really improve your swing?
PRICE £550 url uk.blackberry.com dimensions (L x W x D) 147 x 77.2 x 9.4mm WEIGHT 192g display 5.4-inch AMOLED, 1,440 x 2,560 pixels
OS Android 5.1.1 CHIPSET Qualcomm Snapdragon 808
memory 32GB (up to 200GB with microSD card); 3GB RAM
CAMERAS 18MP rear; 2MP front
I’ve spent the past three years ribbing my wife for owning a BlackBerry. Wielding my LGs in her face, I’d put on my best Mick Dundee voice and say, “That’s not a phone – that’s a phone.” Well, come on, who wants to use a physical keyboard in this day and age? (Especially one that tiny.) And how are you meant to browse the internet on a screen the size of a gnat’s earlobe?
Bearing that in mind, you might wonder why on earth I wanted to spend three whole months reviewing the BlackBerry Priv. The answer is simple: this is an altogether different beast to that little fart-o-fax that tried, and ultimately failed, to monopolise the yuppy market. With the Priv, BlackBerry has finally jumped on a whole bunch of bandwagons at once; the Priv packs Android, it packs a massive 5.4-inch screen (and a dual-curved one at that); hell, it even packs a proper 18MP camera. Maybe, just maybe, I might be able to bring my other half kicking and screaming into the 21st century, without her having to surrender her loyalty to the fruity brand. (Or, for that matter, her love of a physical keyboard – the Priv features a slide-out one, for those who don’t fancy typing out texts on the touchscreen.)
The first thing you notice when you pick up the Priv is the sheer size of the thing. It’s even
“The first thing you notice is the sheer size of the thing; it’s even bigger than my LG G4”
bigger than my G4 – and that’s before you slide the keyboard out of its bottom end. It’s like the kid who gets bullied by the big boys at school, bulking up at the gym to prove a point. The build quality seems decent, though – the back of the phone provides welcome grip (necessary on a handset this unwieldy), while the sliding keyboard, despite being a throwback to the Nineties, is at least smooth with it.
Switching the thing on seems to take forever, but you’re rewarded with a vibrant AMOLED screen that’s bursting with colour and – thanks to its 1,440 x 2,560 resolution – detail. There’s a danger that long-time BlackBerry aficionados will keel over with shock when they see it.
It’s a promising start for BlackBerry’s handset, then. But as we all know, it takes more than a snazzy build and a nice screen to earn a place on the smartphone podium these days. Next issue, I’ll be probing deeper into the Priv’s capabilities.